Prisoner Voting Rights_310807

Voting Rights for Prisoners report 2/07

In Aug 2004 Federal Parliament restricted the right to vote in Federal elections to those serving sentences of three years or less.

Now the coalition has barred all prisoners from voting in federal elections with the introduction in late 2006 of the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act.

There is no evidence that disenfranchising prisoners deters crime or assists in rehabilitation. It is more likely to increase alienation and disengagement from mainstream society and any sense of civic responsibility.

This would disenfranchise 25,353 voters of which more than half are expected to serve sentences of less than two years; ie who are likely to be released within a political term. It is a double disenfranchisement for the 5,656 Indigenous people in jail who lost their ATSIC vote last year.

Contact your local member and senator Let them know that voting is the democratic duty of all citizens not a selective reward for some citizens and not for others. Fellow Commonwealth nations like Canada and South Africa have removed such blatantly discriminatory laws.